Murray: Not so happy now?

By Nick Blackbourn
August 20 2009

It's been over a month since Charlton's official website announced that an approach had been made to purchase the club. Since then, precious little has been heard from either the board or the prospective buyers. Having said that, two very interesting comments were released, one, I am speculating, from each party.

Richard Murray, Plc Chairman, remarked that he and his fellow board members were prepared to write off their Director's Loan to assist the club by making it more attractive to buyers.

(http://www.southlondonpress.co.uk/tn/Sport.cfm?id=26641&headline=Exclusive:%20Charlton%20board%20ready%20to%20write%20off%20%A330million)

Mistake!

With this comment any buyer must have bid MUCH lower; surely, they know that the board is willing to write off their 'friendly' loans.

This is what perhaps sparked the Daily Mail to speculate that the Club may enter administration. (A leak from the consortium?). If the Board were asking for too high a price, the consortium would just wait for the Club to go into administration and then buy it, essentially, for nothing.

(http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-1199063/Charlton-brink-40m-debt-set-scupper-takeover-bid.html)

In this scenario the Directors lose all their loans, the Club loses 10 points, but the buyers have saved 30 million.

In all this, I know as little as the rest of the Fans, but as I see it, Mr. Murray might regret announcing his willingness to give up so much; bad negotiating?!

I would appreciate your comments on this...

P.S. I do think Murray is doing his best for the club, given the circumstances.